Title: 道 ～to you / (Path/Michi ～to you)
Figments I. (Soulmate AU): Where Itachi has an incurable disease and Sakura is a victim of bullying.
Genre: Romance/Fantasy/Slice of Life
Warning: Alternative Universe of Modern Konoha. This fic could also trigger suicidal thoughts and depression, so don't tell me I didn't warn you.
Rating: May change in the future, but for now it's rated "T" or something like that…
Characters: Uchiha Itachi, Haruno Sakura and Otsutsuki Kaguya.
Summary: Uchiha Itachi clings for his life as the Death Reaper slowly takes it away from him. Meanwhile, Haruno Sakura just throw hers to Death Reaper's hands without regret. They will meet in a fateful day that will change the course of their lives and the way they view the world around them.
Introduction
Is it fate or just a pure chance that at the very same second, two lives were thrown at Death Reaper's hands?
The man was desperate for his life while the girl was daring to take hers.
May 09, Wednesday
06:54PM
It was quiet in the living room of the Uchiha manor. The only sound that could be heard in the spacious room were the scribbles of pencil against paper and Uchiha Sasuke's fingers, tapping in interval on the coffee table as he watched his eldest brother, helping him to solve the difficult problem in his Math Workbook.
Uchiha Itachi was about to explain to his little brother what seemed to be the problem in his homework, when he suddenly coughed. He immediately covered his mouth with his right hand as soon as he felt another fit coming. Then, all of a sudden, pain erupted in his chest that made him gripped the edge of the coffee table with his free hand, wrinkling a few pages of Sasuke's Math Workbook at the same time.
And as the Uchiha heir coughed again, he felt that it wasn't only phlegm. It was already too late when he realized that he's coughing blood on the coffee table; in his little brother's workbook and their mother's favorite carpet as well.
Sasuke began to panic, shouting for their mother's help when he saw his brother started to cough blood. By the time their mother hurried to them in the living room, Itachi's vision was already a blur from continuously coughing blood. The Uchiha heir was seeing white spots and then, he collapsed on the blood stained carpet.
06:55:07PM
His only thought before he lost his consciousness on his own pool of blood mixed with saliva was that: He didn't want to die yet. Not in front of his precious little brother and beloved mother. He couldn't just die right now. Not yet...
xxx
As the blade slit the thin skin of her wrist, Haruno Sakura's heart thumped wildly inside her ribcage. Her dull and lifeless apple-green eyes watched as her crimson blood flowed from her slit wrist each passing seconds, mixing with the clear waters in the tub and spilling on the white ceramic tiles to the drainage in the bathroom.
She closed her eyes and submerged her naked body in the bathtub. More stained crimson waters spilled on the bathroom floor. Her mop of pink hair floated, sticking out at the sea of mixed water and blood.
And soon, her chest and head started to hurt from the lack of oxygen flowing inside her body and from the blood she'd lost. She heard ringing in her ears and she could hear her own heartbeat.
She's finally going to die. She won't feel alone and abandoned anymore. And most importantly, she won't feel the pain again. Those were the only thoughts she was hoping for. As her vision darkened, she saw her life flashed before her eyes. From the happiest memories of her childhood to the bleakest moments of her short high school life.
06:55:07PM
Before Sakura completely lost her senses, the last thing she heard was the sound of banging at her bathroom door and probably, her mother or father's scream. Maybe both.
Earlier that day
03:00PM
When the bell roared through the campus of the prestigious Konoha High School, one Hatake Kakashi, the teacher of English Literature subject as well as the homeroom teacher of Class 2-A left the room with his trademark hardbound book covered in crispy white colored paper- that no one really knew the contents. There are so many bets circulating around the school, regarding the particular book of the eccentric and lazy teacher. A few prudent – and hypocrite – students bet that the book was for purely educational while most students bet it was porn because of the suspicious giggles from the masked teacher while reading the said covered book.
And as soon as Kakashi and his co-teachers left their assigned homerooms, the students of Konoha High immediately flooded the hallways of every building.
A pink-haired student packed her things inside her backpack and before she could even stand to leave the room, an infinitesimal group of girls surrounded her. One purple-haired girl known as Ami had pushed her shoulders, forcing the pinkette to sit back on her armchair. She looked up to the group of girls, and when her apple-green eyes met a certain popular red-hair's crimson ones, she immediately lowered her head; left hand gripped the edge of the chair.
"Teme!" Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto from Class 2-D loudly called Uchiha Sasuke, "Let's eat Ramen!"
He's standing at the door of Class 2-A's classroom, effectively blocking the students, who wanted to leave the room immediately.
"Naruto! Don't block the way!" A platinum blonde girl screeched at the hyperactive blond before pushing him to the hallway.
Naruto scratched his head in confusion at the girl's temper in front of him before sticking his tongue out to annoy her.
She naturally ignored Naruto's jest and left the classroom with her fist, gripping the strap of her shoulder bag tightly that her knuckles were turning white. But before the platinum blonde girl left the classroom, she shortly glanced over her shoulder and gave the raven-haired Uchiha a deathly glare.
Sasuke would roll his eyes if he could, but the Uchiha wanted to prove to everyone that no one in his family will ever roll their eyes– except for Obito and Shisui… those two aren't real Uchiha in Sasuke's opinion.
"Saku–" Naruto happily called before Sasuke cut him off.
"Come on, Dobe." Sasuke muttered as he threw his backpack over his shoulder and walked to the doorway, where Naruto stood with a frown, marring on his face. "Let's eat ramen."
Baby blue eyes stared in confusion at Sasuke's onyx orbs before he dared to look at the girls, surrounding his "Sakura-chan" and then, back at Sasuke's again. Sasuke glanced at the small group of girls and slightly shook his head before a hidden half smirk formed on his lips as he left the classroom, forcefully dragging his – unfortunately – idiot and gullible best friend since childhood.
xxx
03:03PM
A pair of onyx eyes scanned the papers in the folder for umpteenth time before casually setting it down on the top of his office desk. Then, he typed his monthly report in his office desktop. He slightly frowned when his sight blurred for a few seconds, and followed by a headache at the same he heard a quick and short knocks outside his office. He ignored the person outside his office, hoping they will go away when no one answered them because he obviously didn't want to be disturbed at the moment.
When nobody called to come in, the wooden oak double doors opened halfway through with Uchiha Shisui's curly-haired head, sticking out at it.
"Hey, Ita-chan about the–" Shisui abruptly stopped when he saw the frown on his younger cousin's face.
Knowing Itachi since they were children, he would normally glare in disapproval at Shisui for calling him the nickname his beloved mother bestowed to him while babying him. That's why, Shisui found it weird when Itachi just brushed him off.
Shisui scuffled to Itachi's desk and worriedly asked, "Is there a problem?"
Itachi blinked for a few times before he replied as he ran a hand on a few loose strands of jet black hair, massaging his temple afterwards and loosening his velvet necktie.
"No, just a headache."
Shisui narrowed his eyes and then, he suddenly looked like there was a bomb dropped in front of him.
The older Uchiha sighed before smiling tiredly, "Did you pulled an all-nighter again?"
Shisui understood that his younger cousin is a workaholic and doesn't have a life like him, but did he really need to be this devoted to their family business? Itachi should stay at home and rest, Shisui decided. But instead of answering him, Itachi ignored him and just handed him a flash drive from his office desk's middle drawer.
"Father needed this presentation at the meeting tomorrow morning." Itachi simply informed Shisui and he could detect that his baby cousin sounded really tired.
As the curly-haired Uchiha took the flash drive from Itachi, he lightly shook his head and reprimand his cousin.
"You do know that Mikoto-bachan will scold you and your father if something bad happens to you, right?" Shisui warned.
He remembered his Aunt's long lecture (and nagging) for making her "Ita-chan" collapsed from exhaustion during Itachi's High School days with the Akatsuki. She especially lectured him and Obito about Itachi's delicate condition.
Itachi's lips formed a small smile at the mention of his mother's name, "I guess I'll just finish this soon and go home early."
"Mama's boy."
xxx
03:45PM
Forty-five minutes had passed since the class' dismissal and exactly twenty-two minutes and thirteen seconds since everyone started to leave the classroom of Class 2-A except for Haruno Sakura.
She felt sticky all over her body because of the raspberry juice that was spilled to her: from her natural pink hair to her now pink-stained white indoor shoes. Her uniform was also in a mess; her grey coat was dirty, the school's trademark black ribbon for girls was missing around the collar of her sailor-type blouse and she probably lost a few buttons. Her books and notebooks were littered practically everywhere in the room, but she could care less at the moment.
She was just sitting on her armchair, staring lifelessly at the offending writings and caricatures about her on the whiteboard. Her once expressive and full of life apple-green eyes were now completely void of emotions as it stared at the hurtful words on the board.
'Go to hell, Haruno bitch!'
'You don't belong in here, fake pink haired whore.'
'Can't you just die forehead girl?'
Forty-five minutes after their class was dismissed, she experienced a twenty-three minutes in hell. Such a short fun time for others like her bullies, but for Sakura? Those twenty-three minutes was like a lifetime.
The physical, emotional and mental abuse she received from her classmates were too much. She knew she shouldn't be affected. Her logic and reasons told her to stop being easily affected by their downgrading words and their degrading treatment towards her, but it hurts.
It really hurts.
She shakily drew a breath before shutting close her eyes, tears slipped down her cheeks as she covered her face with her sticky hands.
"Please…" She pathetically cried to particularly no one inside the room, "…save me."
xxx
04:19PM
Half an hour ago, he felt his headache was getting worst. He stopped doing his monthly report because he had to massage his temple in order to ease the pain, but it wasn't working. It dawned to Itachi that he hadn't really went back to work because of his growing headache since Shisui left his office after handing the documents to him earlier.
He thought that maybe it's because of his lack of sleep added by the stress from the loads of paperwork on his office desk. That's why he gave the important paperwork to Shisui, and told himself that he will deal with the remaining paperwork tomorrow.
Then, he went home and flopped himself on the couch of their living room two minutes ago. He even asked his mother for a pain reliever for his headache. It went from slight to extreme in just a span of hour.
His head felt like it was breaking in half and he's having a hard time breathing.
"Here, Itachi." His mother handed him a glass of water and a pill of pain reliever, "Are you sure this is fine?"
Itachi nodded as an answer and popped the pill in his mouth before washing it down with water. As Itachi felt drowsy because of the pain reliever, his mother helped to ease his headache by massaging his head.
xxx
04:27PM
More than an hour had passed since the dismissal of their class and exactly thirty minutes since she left the premises of Konoha High. For almost twenty-two minutes after everybody left the classroom of Class 2-A, Sakura had stayed for a while.
After all, she needed to gather and pull herself together first before she left school to go home. She needed to appear in front of the world that she's fine and that she has no problem. People didn't need to get involve in her teenage dramas. Although, the sensible part of herself kept telling her that her parents should know about the bullying in school, but Sakura couldn't tell them.
It's because she's afraid.
She's afraid that if she told any – either responsible or worse, irresponsible – adults about her problems, they will make everything worst for her. She's afraid that if she told anybody about her situation, those bullies will make her school life more miserable.
Her school life will be more miserable…
Sakura laughed to herself. Who's she kidding? Few months ago, she thought that the bullying will eventually stop, but it didn't. It still continued. Just because of a mistake she made, which she never and will never regret she'd done– that everybody decided to gang up on her. How sweet is that?
When Sakura had walked passed the Great Seventh Hokage Bridge, she realized how people were really busy to notice her. The cars were all running so fast, it all became a blur for her as they passed by. The drivers' eyes were always on the road, so they will hardly pay attention to the pink-haired girl. They will ignore the second year senior high, who may jumped off the bridge to drown herself. Nobody will notice that a person drowned to death. Nobody will know whether she hanged herself. Nobody will know that she would cut her wrist and die.
Nobody will miss her. Okay, her parents will probably miss her, she bitterly added. But they're hardly at home, so yeah? Nobody would. They will probably miss her for a what? A few years and then, they will move on eventually.
But she wondered to herself as she stared at the mixture of orange and pink hues at the sky and the setting sun on the horizon, if she die like how they wanted her to be, are they going to be happy in their lives? Are they going to be relieved? Or their hearts will be filled with guilt for what they've done to her?
She wanted to take revenge for all the pain and suffering they caused her, but she will never stoop down to their level. It was her fault too, but Sakura knew that if she ever leave this world, she'll die with no regrets.
xxx
07:24PM
Uchiha Sasuke never liked the disinfectant smell of hospitals, but he endured it. He endured it for the sake of his brother while comforting his sobbing mother beside him. They're outside the Intensive Care Unit of Konohagakure General Hospital, waiting for the doctors to stabilize his brother and bring them the news that will either relieve them or break their hearts.
He didn't expect this when he went home from school (and from the ramen house with Naruto, which was near their school). Heck! Nobody expected this to happen. One moment, Itachi was giving him some helpful tips about the difficult equations in his Math homework after dinner in their living room and the next, he started coughing blood on his Math Workbook. Lots of blood that it stained Sasuke's favorite shirt and their mother's carpet.
"Mikoto-ba! What happened?" Shisui asked in worry while panting as he stared between his Aunt and Sasuke.
As soon as Shisui heard the news that Itachi was rushed in ICU, he immediately left the pile of paperwork in his office to go to his cousin. Madara-ojiisama and Fugaku-oji's scolding be damned!
"He said that he was fine and he even helped me with my assignment after dinner, but then, he suddenly started coughing blood…" Sasuke started to explain to Shuisi as his mother calmed herself.
xxx
07:25PM
Haruno Mebuki couldn't control herself from going hysterical that's why her husband was hugging her tightly, outside the Operation Room of Konohagakure General Hospital. Haruno Kizashi was assuring his wife that their daughter will be fine and the doctors will save her.
Earlier, the couple received a text message from their only daughter, saying how she was sorry for them and giving her farewell. They both felt something bad was going to happen to their daughter, so they rushed home. Then, they found out their daughter had committed suicide in her bathroom.
The couple didn't know what happened to their daughter and what went through her mind. They have lots of question to ask her like: why did she drowned herself in the tub with a slit wrist? Did she wanted to make sure she really died? Did she even thought of her parents when she decided to kill herself? Why did she wanted to kill herself? What happened to her? What made her do it?
Those are the few questions that the couple wanted to ask their daughter, but they couldn't at the moment… and they probably wouldn't if she made it. They will probably wait until she's stable enough to find out the answers to their questions.
For now, they will pray and wait. They believe in Haruno Sakura, their daughter.
An entity known as the Death Reaper hovered at the two lifeless forms of the pink-haired and raven-haired humans. The Reaper's pair of clear orbs stared as if amused at the two humans, floating at their both sides: the pink-haired human at their left and the raven-haired human at their right.
This Death Reaper is known by name of Kaguya. Kaguya's noticeably features are the two brown horns on their head. The extremely long, sweeping white hair and a crimson third eye on the center of their forehead.
Kaguya stared at the pink-haired human beside them, "It wasn't her time yet, but she decided to take her own life without my permission? How daring of her."
Then, the Reaper's clear orbs shifted to their hand, glancing at the black and crimson vines at their right hand before staring at the ending point of the two colored vines, which was wrapped around the abdomen of the lifeless form of the raven-haired human.
"This human is slowly dying, but he still wanted to live. How desperate and greedy of him." Kaguya stated to themselves.
Kaguya's pale hands caressed the faces of both humans. The Death Reaper's long and dark fingernails didn't impaled the two humans, but instead it went through their faces.
"Is it fate or just a pure chance that at the very same second, the lives of this two were thrown in my hands?" And then, Kaguya gifted the two humans with a kiss on their foreheads, "But of course, only one of you will live to tell which it is."